Parameters of Mobile Multipath Channels

Many multipath channel parameters are derived from the power delay profile. Some
of the parameters are as follows:

Time Dispersion Parameters

1. The time dispersive properties of wide band multipath channels are most
commonly quantified by their mean excess delay (τ-) and rms delay spread (τ).

2. The mean excess delay is the first moment of the power delay profile and is
defined to be

…………………… (1)

3. The rms delay spread is the square root of the second central moment of the
power delay profile and is defined to be

……………………………...(2)

where

………………..(3)

4. Equations (1) - (3) do not rely on the absolute power level of P (τ), but only the
relative amplitudes of the multipath components within P (τ).

5. The maximum excess delay (X dB} of the power delay profile is defined to be
the time delay during which multipath energy falls to X dB below the maximum.
 6. In practice, values for

depend on the choice of noise threshold used to process P(τ)

Fig: Example of an indoor power delay profile; rms delay spread, mean excess
delay, maximum excess delay (10 dB), and threshold level are shown.
 2. Coherence Bandwidth

1. It is a statistical measure of the range of frequencies over which the channel can
be considered “flat” (i.e., a channel which passes all spectral components with
approximately equal gain and linear phase).

2. In other words, coherence bandwidth is the range of frequencies over which two
frequency components have a strong potential for amplitude correlation.

3. Two sinusoids with frequency separation greater than Bc are affected quite
differently by the channel. If the coherence bandwidth is defined as the bandwidth
over which the frequency correlation function is above 0.9, then the coherence
bandwidth is approximately

…………….(4)

4. If the definition is relaxed so that the frequency correlation function is above 0.5.
then the coherence bandwidth is approximately

…………….(5)

5. It is important to note that an exact relationship between coherence bandwidth

and rms delay spread does not exist, and eqn (4) and (5) are “ball park estimates”

6. In general, spectral analysis techniques and simulation are required required to

determine the exact impact that time varying multipath has on a particular
transmitted signal. For this reason, accurate multipath channel models must be
used in the design of specific modems for wireless applications.
 Doppler Spread and Coherence Time

1. Doppler spread and coherence time are parameters which describe the time
varying nature of the channel in a samll-scale region.

2. Doppler spread BD is a measure of the spectral broadening caused by the time

rate of change of the mobile radio channel and is defined as the range of
frequencies over which the received Doppler spectrum is essentially non-zero.

3. When a pure sinusoidal tone of frequency fc is transmitted, the received signal

spectrum, called the Doppler spectrum, will have components in the range fc- fd to
fc+ fd where fd, is the Doppler shift.

4. The amount of spectral broadening depends on fd which is a function of the

relative velocity of the mobile, and the angle θ between the direction of motion of
the mobile and direction of arrival of the scattered waves.

5. If the baseband signal bandwidth is much greater than BD, the effects of
Doppler spread are negligible at the receiver. This is a slow fading channel.

6. The Doppler spread and coherence time TC are inversely proportional to one
another. That is,

…………………...(1)

7. Coherence time is actually a statistical measure of the time duration over which
the channel impulse response is essentially invariant, and quantifies the similarity
of the channel response at different times.

8. If the coherence time is defined as the time over which the time correlation
function is above 0.5, then the coherence time is approximately

…………………...(2)

where fm is the maximum Doppler shift given by fm = v/.

9. A popular rule of thumb for modern digital communications is to define the
coherence time as the geometric mean of equations (1) and (2). That is,

10. If a digital transmission system is used, then as long as the symbol rate is
greater than 1/TC = 454 bps, the channel will not cause distortion due to motion
(however, distortion could result from multipath time delay spread, depending on
the channel impulse response).

11. Using the practical formula of above eqn, TC = 6.77 ms and the symbol rate
must exceed 150 bits/s in order to avoid distortion due to frequency dispersion.